I am a high school senior choosing between UC Irvine and Rutgers. From my calculations if I went to Rutgers over UC Irvine, I would save over 133K. I looked up the income potential for both schools and it seems like UC Irvine is at 69K for starting and 122K for mid-career salary. Rutgers is at 67K for starting and 125K for mid-career (even higher!) salary.
I live in New Jersey and I’ve always wanted to leave and explore other places, California being one of those places. I’ve visited a few times and I absolutely loved it. There is also the potential that UC Irvine has better networking and opportunities (if anyone has went to UC Irvine, please give me input).
Considering opportunities I might be missing by going to Rutgers over Irvine, and other factors I might have missed: Is it worth attending Irvine even though I will be 133K more in debt (over four years)?
If you were looking at UC Berkeley for CS over Rutgers I’d say yes go to California, but for that $$ difference, I’d go to Rutgers. While UC Irvine has moved up the ladder, I’d still put Rutgers as a better school and you’d be much better off with less debt. I’m from NJ originally and went to college in California, so I understand that, but I had a lot of financial aid and took on very little debt.
OP, you’re better off at Rutgers, even though I consider UC Irvine a slightly better school. That’s a crazy, irresponsible amount of debt for undergrad.
OP, go to Rutgers. You can explore California during summer internships and by getting a job there after graduation. That’s the beauty of a CS degree: it can take you just about anywhere in the country - no matter where you happen to complete it.